


The Ailstrom Dragon Family

by Havoc_In_Motion



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dragons, Fairy Tale Elements, Fantasy, original - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24221059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Havoc_In_Motion/pseuds/Havoc_In_Motion
Summary: A draconic fairy-tale-style fic, this is a story I wrote for a cultural studies final. It's about a family of dragon siblings and their castle, and is inspired by my own distaste for those fairy tales about siblings competing for inheritance or something. Let me know if there's something you think I could improve.
Kudos: 2





	The Ailstrom Dragon Family

Once upon a time, in a physical space theoretically inaccessible from our own in conventional movement, there was a well-to-do, healthy human kingdom. In the eastern reaches of that kingdom was a dense and wild forest, and in that forest was a castle full of dragons.

Now, one might wonder how a castle comes to be in the middle of wild woods, and how it comes to be filled with dragons. The answers to both of these things are simple. The castle was in a wild wood and uninhabited by humans because dragons live a long time, and like to keep a nice home in the family, if they have one. As for being filled with dragons, this was because the castle had been built as a defensive point to keep intruders out of its eastern border. This meant it was isolated from the bustling noise and stench of large human populations, and still quite fresh and clean when a nearby teenage dragon noticed it. Naturally, he admired what a fancy and spacious structure had been constructed right nearby his own small, newish, not yet very well decorated, and come to think of it really rather cramped cave. With this in mind, he decided to make an inquiry as to the property rights.

The following exchange of real estate was never publicly remarked on by the current royalty, save to rule the issue of defense from the east as resolved.

Four generations of dragons later, a family of five now occupied the castle. Now, as mentioned, dragons live a long time. So while it is quite possible that the name of Ailstrom was taken originally from some royal signings on or within the castle, the name of the royalty who sponsored its construction remains a mystery. This is due to a relatively regular violent overthrow of the ruling class in this human kingdom, which is likely at any point that the kingdom sees some kind of serious misfortune. This displays a pleasantly surprising lack of impact on much else than certain names within written history, and somewhat less notably, the ruling class itself.

In any case, despite last names for dragons being quite rare, this family was called Ailstrom, after the mother. The mother of the family, who was named Ralyan Ailstrom, was also unfortunately dead. The cause of her death was a lightning strike, a phenomena unfortunately more common to dragons then to humans. Due to the ability to fly, obviously. This made the father, Amset Ailstrom, a widower, and his four children half-orphans. Fortunately, dragons live a long time. So despite the children being quite young at her point of death, they were still able to be children for a large period of time in which it was something that happened “a long time ago.”

As for the identity of the dragon children, they are as follows:

The first of these was large, and golden-brown. The oldest child and sister, Salem was generally considered the most experienced, and possibly the most level-headed. Both of these were viewed by her siblings as irritating obstacles in otherwise fair arguments, providing an insidious feeling of being patronized without anything solid to push back against. For her part, Salem enjoyed these advantages, while being eternally careful not to actually invoke her seniority out loud. To do so might win an argument, but it would be a crack in an otherwise seamless visage of cool rationality.

Some of her favorite things included swimming in clear waters, organizing her personal hoard by color, and making sculptures. These sculptures, however, were not of any common variety. To be more specific, Salem enjoyed gathering clay and sand and heating them with her breath. In this way, clay would harden while sand became molten glass. With some careful adjustments to consistency and a few dyes, she could create fascinating whorls of color and texture. When she felt particularly artistic, she even used her tongue to sculpt a bit. The taste was obviously terrible, but the shapes created were delightfully strange.

The second oldest was Coromant, the oldest brother. He was a cool black, with shades of blue in the right light, and naturally a bit smaller than Salem. When he was younger, he was called Alph. Unfortunately, he was a bit insecure, and insisted now to be referred to as Coromant. It is unknown how he came by this name. One pet theory is that he mistook it for Condor, which is a type of large black vulture. This would indicate a somewhat poor vocabulary, which tracks with his dislike of the name Alph. Apparently, his distaste for it began when he was told how it was spelled, and he generally considered it to be too short.

Coromant’s interests included exploring caves, wrestling with his siblings, and generally acting in an “adventurous” manner. He was fond of taking a few nights here and there to sleep under the stars, and loved to skulk in brush or snow that was tall enough to obscure him. As a predictable turn of events, he grew to enjoy hunting. At one point in his life, there was very little that would please him as much as bringing home enough meat to feed everyone, and receiving the appreciation of all for his effort and skill. Unfortunately, as mentioned, he was also a bit insecure, and became somewhat upset if supper had been planned for something else without him.

The third child was also proportionally smaller than his aforementioned siblings proportional to age, but was also a bit slim. He was similar to Coromant in color, but closer to grey, with a purple sheen in the reflective angles of his scales. His name was Terrin, and he was far and away the best of all four of them at magic. Dragons are naturally proficient at a few magical skills, especially concerning their breath, but Terrin had mastered shapeshifting into a human before he had hit the draconic version of puberty. This was due to long stretches of time losing track of it, and becoming extremely engrossed in various tomes and contraptions. Four generations of dragons had accumulated some fascinating things within the castle, and he enjoyed them all. He especially liked those that pertained to humans, as he found them fascinating. His interest in their culture and accomplishments were largely responsible for his ability in shapeshifting, though his other magical tendencies were a bit more diverse.

The fourth and final child was somewhat small, even for her age, and ruby red. She was, notably, the only one who could comfortably slink through the tower staircases instead of simply flying. Her dexterity allowed her to win many games of hide-and-seek inside and outside of the castle. Her name was Ruby. Naming a child after a piece of treasure, especially for her superficial appearance, was a divisive decision among her parents, but it had won out in the end.

She was known for being cunning and swift, and quite hard to keep track of if she was up to something. This was likely a response to being the smallest and least experienced of all four siblings, which would be enough to make anyone fond of theft. She, however, rather excelled at it. She kept little, however, and was on relatively good terms with anyone she wasn’t engaged in any kind of competition with. She also particularly loved working with Terrin on occasion, working on clever contraptions with fun features like granting the ability to see hot things, or make any surface slippery to move on.

As these four grew older, their father Amset did as well, and many happy years were spent enjoying the fun environment around the castle. There was a nearby river with a small waterfall, the rich forest around, and even a small rocky area just a little trip south. Human civilization had grown farther into the forest than in the early days of the kingdom, but any in the area of the castle were still quite rare. Most dragons who had lived in the Ailstrom hold when young had moved far away, but some were still relatively near, and provided a strong deterrent to wandering the woods aimlessly. Not all dragons are particularly malicious, but humans are pretty recognizably clever, and snatching one up for a quick conversation can lead to mutually disappointing results for any number of reasons. Inarticulate terror, political disagreements, and a poor dive angle into the grabbing motion all have some share of blame for this.

All things considered, the castle was quite a good place for young dragons to grow. It was a little harder to keep warm in the winter than a cave, and not all of the rooms were comfortably sized, but overall it had a very good amount of space fit for growing dragons to make use of. Every now and again, a date would arrive which had been set aside for a family reunion. On these days, All the extended family of four generations who had lived in the castle and their children returned to say hello to it again, and all the children would either struggle to hold conversations between themselves, or gleefully jump into some overly large game of something like tag. The rules were never quite clear, and changed every time, but they all enjoyed flying about the wild grounds. This community, which was a rather large group for such an individualistic species, nevertheless held together well with their feeling of family. The Ailstrom family name remains one of the widest maintained last names for dragons.

The castle itself was passed down through the generations by varying ways of deciding inheritance, though usually things were resolved amicably. None had ever challenged Amset’s ownership after Ralyan’s passing, nor desired to. She had been a favorite youngest sister of her family, and Amset was ultimately a popular husband.

However, as they grew older, the siblings came to realize that they could not all live in the castle forever. Certain interests required homes elsewhere, and starting a family, while a strange concept, would clearly not be feasible with multiple of them in the same place. At best, it would be a miserable hodgepodge of grudging compromises. Yet, they all loved their old home, and had great difficulty deciding who would use or enjoy it best.

Amset, who was by this time quite old indeed for a dragon, was rather unperturbed by the idea of his death. Most dragons have more than enough time to at least come to terms with mortality by the time old age is an issue. His children were all just about adults by now, and he knew they all had great fondness for the castle. So, doing his best to provide an arbitrary measure of their desire to help them consider their wishes unconsciously, he provided an admittedly rudimentary process to decide the inheritance.

When his body had begun to slow down even his heart, he had all his children gather. “In a great number of places in this estate,” he said, “I have hidden golden coins. Half of a year from the day that I die, I want you all to find as many as you can. Whoever shall find the most, shall be the most determined, and will keep the castle.”

He had read of an idea like this in a human storybook when he was younger, and it had occurred to him again when he considered inheritance in his own life. His children conferred, and eventually agreed that it would work pretty well. However, Terrin could not use any spells that would make it too easy. Any coins found ahead of time were to be hidden again, and not looked for by the one who found them. Ruby was not allowed to steal any, and there would be no searching until they were all ready on the specific day. Ruby was rather offended by the rule over stealing, as she insisted she wouldn’t do so under the circumstances anyway. However, Salem insisted that the rule applied to anyone, and Coromant commented it would probably be better to have a rule on stealing than not.

Amset did indeed die, and after the time to mourn and bury him deep away from the curiosity of human treasure-hunters passed, the day of coin-hunting finally arrived.

All four of the siblings met, and after confirming they were ready, set out to search. Coromant prioritized the wider grounds, thinking he would be able to use his familiarity to find all hidden there. Ruby, for her part, was quick to snake into the tight corners of the castle, certain her father would have considered her size a factor in the competition. Terrin had devised a crude divination spell, which was capable of leading him to one coin at a time. It had been ruled as fair by the others, but unfortunately proved hard to find very many with. He started to try using a magnetism spell on nearby non metallic surfaces as he went, and had some luck with that.

Salem had decided quite firmly, before the day came, that she well and truly wanted the castle. It had serviceable access to supplies for her art, but moreover she felt she could live the rest of her life there with little need for a change in scenery, and could provide an anchoring point for her siblings to remain tied to. She had spent almost all her time since that decision carefully considering the layout of the grounds, how long Amset had been hiding coins for, and how he would have gone about it. She correctly predicted several tricks, such as hiding a specifically labeled stash of coins in his personal hoard, and slipping some between the covers of books in the room they used as a library. At the end of the day, she had found a great many coins, and felt her determination proven.

In what was considered the great hall of the castle, though it was a smaller hall than most royalty-dedicated castles have, the siblings met with their coins. Terrin had a pile of a few thousand, having only found a few small stashes. Ruby, who was out of breath from running all day, had perhaps twice as many. The small spaces had some coins, but Amset had grown still in old age, and she had found more once she started to dig holes in likely-looking places as well. Salem had perhaps half again as many as Ruby, thanks to her effort.

Coromant had a few more than that.

This was a bit strange to the rest of them. The outside grounds surely shouldn’t have had that many, right? Yet there they were. Coromant grew rather indignant and a little flustered at the confusion. “I know the grounds here better than any of you.” he said. “Of course I found more. You lot should have just looked outside more. Anyway, I’m the best at fighting, and being vigilant. I’ll be able to protect the castle, from any humans, or angry griffons, or even other strange dragons if I have too! Why shouldn’t I get it? Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”

Salem, who had won enough arguments with Coromant to pick up on empty blustering, looked more carefully at some half-buried coins, and picked one up. Coromant gave a half-hearted yelp of indignation, but allowed her to look at it.

“...Well.” she said after a minute. “This is from dad’s hoard, isn’t it?” They hadn’t divided Amsets hoard up yet, though they would eventually.

Coromant looked away angrily, though not without some shame. “Maybe.”

Salem hissed a breath out between her teeth. “And why would you have coins from dad’s stash in your collection for this competition?” Coromant glared at the ground. “He said they were hidden all around the castle. Well, these were in the castle. I didn’t look for them ‘till today. They’re golden coins. They’re legal.”

“I’m pretty sure their legality isn’t as solid as all that” said Terrin, who didn’t really want the castle that much at this point but was rather angry for Salem’s sake. “Considering the implications of the rules based on what we know, I think we could have a far deeper conversation about this.”

Coromant shifted uncomfortably, though his face remained angry. Salem sighed. “No, it’s fine, it’s not that big a deal. He can win. It’s his determination, or whatever. I didn’t need it that badly, anyway.”

They spoke a little more, but Salem made it clear she was fine with that outcome. Coromant was beginning to regret his decision to grab the extra coins, but remained somewhat insecure even now, and could not think of any bearable way to undo it. Terrin didn’t have that great a stake in the situation, and reluctantly agreed.

Ruby was silent, long after catching her breath, and barely muttered a reply when they were discussing where they would each go next. She shot several glares at Coromant, who found them very discomforting even as he was pretending to examine an old armored dummy at one wall. The other three eventually arranged their travel plans for the day after tomorrow, and left for their rooms. As she exited the hall, she turned back for a moment.

“Hey Coromant” she called out. “Hnrghm?” he responded nervously, having started to gnaw on an old spear in anxiety. She looked at him for a moment. “Y’know, a Cormorant is a kind of small, weird black water bird” she said. “It’s kind of like a duck. I’ve thought about it every time I’ve heard your name or looked at you for years.”

With that, she turned and left the hall. Coromant’s jaw hung open for a few moments in shock before he clacked it shut. The rather on-point blow to his name hurt a surprising amount, especially considering she had thought of it for so long while he had never realized it himself. He grew angry pretty quickly, and stormed to his hoard in a huff. Though he stewed in frustration for some time, the feeling remained. When his siblings left the day after the next, it began to sink in his gut, and as the anger faded he began to feel quite miserable indeed.

In a little while, in terms of time for dragons, the three others had set themselves up comfortably in new homes. Salem had heard of a swamp with four sunken castles in it from failed human building projects. It seemed unlikely, but when they had arrived there, some quick diving and magic had confirmed it. With some exploration of remaining air pockets by Ruby, and a carefully constructed portal by Terrin, they managed to set up an easy way to get in and bring debris out. This opened the way for future repair of the structures into a properly large home, which Salem was confident she could devise pretty independently. She stashed her hoard in a freshly cleaned and relatively secure room, and they moved on.

Next, they focused on Ruby, who wanted to set up in a nearby-ish (as the dragon flies) volcano. It was unfortunately dormant, but the aesthetic still greatly appealed to her. Anyway, there was always hope for the future. One great-uncle of theirs had experienced three different eruptions of a volcano near his place, and enjoyed telling Ruby stories of the brilliant displays. Eventually, she conceded that a cave not quite directly on the face of the volcano would be prudent, to make sure none of her hoard melted and she didn’t get sealed out at any point by a cooled lava flow. With some teamwork, they expanded a hollow in a neighbor peak into a serviceable home. Ruby created a cramped and well-hidden offshoot for her hoard, and they turned to Terrin’s accommodations.

Terrin, however, explained that he actually knew a pretty good hiding spot he could put his hoard in. In a few longer excursions, he had found an old, abandoned well in a failed village. With some careful spellwork, he had created a warded chamber in a small offshoot filled with a poison gas only he could breath, and covered the entire thing with powerful illusions. He could only reach it by teleporting at this point, and had established it only with some very trick shapeshifting. Ruby expressed scepticism for the practicality of such a home, to which he replied he was actually planning to live mostly outside of it. Salem expressed concern for the health of his scales sleeping away from his hoard, to which he replied that he intended to spend most of his time as a human.

Salem’s concern for his health at this point is actually quite rational. Hoards have a good deal of cultural and personal significance to a dragon, as a collection of their most valuable and often personal items. However, the presence of gold in a hoard is also vital to maintain the health of their scales, keeping them strong, flexible and shiny through some as-of-yet unknown reaction.

Both Salem and Ruby expressed shock, disbelief, and faint horror at the idea of spending a majority of one's time as a human, to which Terrin replied with a great deal of defensive ranting. Through a loud and confused conversation, he gradually explained that he wanted to explore human society in more detail, and had created the persona of a human spellcaster for himself to do just that. He had carefully considered his health and safety, and worked hard on developing his human speech and conformity. He felt he could learn a lot, and enjoy a great deal of new experiences.

His sisters didn’t really understand his obsession with humans, but admitted he had planned well, and his decision tracked with his previous decisions on the matter. They wished him luck, and all went their own ways after an emotional goodbye. For about four months, they all got a strong start on their new lives.

A little before the fourth month ended, Ruby came home from hunting down a dear to find a despondent Coromant sulking sheepishly outside her figurative doorstep. While being despondent, sulking, and acting sheepish are all pretty distinct efforts, Coromant managed to employ them all. Though she didn’t feel much like talking this late, she reluctantly deigned to land next to him and stare silently until he either finished telling her why he was there, or grew incomprehensible.

Luckily, Coromant seemed to have rehearsed this speech in his head several times already. He did his best to explain what happened. To start with, about a month ago, he had noticed some smoke rising from a point a few miles away. Naturally, as this was too close to the castle for his comfort, he went to investigate. He arrived carefully, on foot, to find a large camp of humans. Naturally, this was rather outrageous for the area. When land is part of dragon territory, people tend to steer clear. Here, there was a large group of men, sitting around campfires and eating a few roasted… things. He couldn’t tell what they were, besides meat, and he didn’t see any carcasses. So they must have brought the unfamiliar-smelling things along. After watching a while longer, he managed to determine that they had been laying some manner of circular foundation, and noticed a bearded man with robes glaring at the men- workers? In any case, he reasoned that man must be a wizard, and the foundation... must be for a wizard tower.

Now, it is important to realize here that wizards, as a subcategory of humans, are pretty well known to dragons. Among dragon families and what communities may form, they are widely regarded as a minor nuisance. Young wizards, anyway. Old wizards are regarded with a healthy dose of caution. Wizards who isolate themselves, even more so, as they likely have extended their lives and now choose to dedicate all their time to their craft. Old wizards who isolate themselves in dangerous locations, such as just above an active volcano, at the bottom of a giant whirlpool, or in the midst of active dragon territory, are considered to be both wildly dangerous and potentially mad. Few dragons dare approach them with hostility, and some who find such a wizard isolating themselves within their territory quietly move away. To a wizard who has chosen to live near dragons, this can be rather frustrating.

Unfortunately, Coromant had grown up rather distant from humans, and paid little attention to Terrin’s musings on them. So he could not entirely be blamed for the events to follow, though Ruby was already beginning to get somewhat worried at this part of the tale.

Coromant reasoned that any wizard who needed workers to build a tower couldn’t be that practiced, and one who let them create smoke signals near dragons couldn’t be too wise either. So, with this analysis of the situation, clearly the only move was to drive him out again. So, using his ambush skills, he attempted to do just that. He effortlessly drove off a large section of the men by incinerating them, then jumped into the clearing to crush and swipe at a few more, and finally let out another wide stream of flame after those who were now running.

Those who were not running included three workers, who had wisely run directly towards the wizard. At the first flame, the bearded man had whipped out a wooden staff, chanting a spell and swiftly encasing himself in a large, translucent barrier. The workers who had remained grew to appreciate their wisdom very much indeed, as Coromant began to test the barrier’s strength.

The wizard, carefully messing with a few of his rings, greeted Coromant, and asked for his name. As Coromant continued his testing, the wizard went on to explain he had no ill will, wanted only to speak peacefully, and had several gifts he thought a young dragon might appreciate. Coromant had little intention of backing down, and was growing frustrated over both the barrier's strength and being called “young.” He continued to press his attack until the wizard started to seem concerned, and asked him to reconsider his hostility. He was pleased with this up until the wizard sighed, and cast an acidic spell at his eyes.

After a bit of loud draconic screaming, Coromant’s vision cleared enough to see the wizard dropping the barrier, and seeming to prepare something else. He then decided to retreat.

The next day, he returned to the area, and once more approached carefully. He found no sign of any humans, just a semi-scorched uncompleted tower foundation. Feeling it a stroke of luck, he proceeded to tear the entire foundation up, and return the clearing to its base state as much as possible. After a day spent as such, he felt much better, and thought his vision might be about back to normal as well.

A little later, he was on a patrol in that general area when he heard metal clanking. This is not a good sound for any dragon to hear roaming their territory, save those who adore battle. He circled closer, and easily spotted the source- a large group of fully armored men. And in the back… yes, in the back was a bearded man in robes. Almost certainly the same wizard.

As he fled home, he reflected the wizard had probably noticed the destroyed foundations. Well, not before he recruited a force of heavily armored and highly dangerous mercenaries or whatever they were, but probably on the way back. His heart sank further as he gradually considered his defenses, and concluded that he could not hold the castle.

So, he concluded miserably, that was the end of the story. He had tried to move as much of his hoard as he could, but hadn’t managed all of it, and couldn’t transport it from his hiding spot without preparation or help. He’d tried to fight some when they arrived, of course, but even direct dragon fire didn’t shake them, and his direct blows seemed to do little harm. He thought there might have been more than fifty. The wizard stared unmoving at him from the back, and he knew the man had done something to make the others so strong. But there was nothing for it. He retreated, and left. And now he was here, because he wasn’t certain where the others lived, but this was definitely the nearest volcano.

Ruby, while one to hold a grudge, was also pretty taken aback. To lose the castle? Shocking, certainly. To a wizard and a gang of dangerous… knights or something? Very alarming. But as she listened, she also spotted a long cut on Coromant’s- her brother’s right flank. A single blow through scale, with dried blood still crusted at the edges. And that made her feel a little worse yet. All else aside, he could have been seriously hurt, with none of the rest of the around. Had been, a bit, and probably could have died if that dangerous a wizard had really wanted it.

She brought him into her cave, gave him some of the deer by a large fire she had set up, and went about contacting the others. Terrin was easiest, as she still had a magic ring from him for long-range communication. It was a little inconvenient, though, as he was around humans, and she was forced to interpret his attempts at code-speak on the fly. Once he understood the situation, however, he excused himself, and set about contacting Salem immediately.

Once Salem and Terrin met Ruby and Coromant at the volcano cave, they agreed to immediately return to check the situation. Coromant was a bit reluctant, but also quite anxious by now about the state of his hoard. So, they set off back to their first home.

When they arrived around the area of the tower, they could see the result clearly. Since Coromant’s retreat, the wizard had apparently completed it, and Terrin confirmed it felt inhabited, if the active wards were anything to judge by. They headed to the castle then, to see what remained with the wizard apparently satisfied.

What remained was a castle, with a fair amount of riches within it, now populated not by dragons but drunk, cheerful, and very enthusiastic men. Mercenaries after all, then. There was chainmail and plate mail around, but few wore any of it at the moment. Armor is, after all, quite heavy and hot.

They decided it would probably be relatively easy to fight them now, though Terrin warned their weapons and armor had likely been enchanted by the wizard, which would have made it as formidable as Coromant described. Coromant immediately suggested they think of something else. Ruby piped up to ask if Terrin still had that wand that could make things fall asleep.

He considered for a moment, and reluctantly admitted he had accidentally broken it a rather long time ago. Salem asked, in turn, if he perhaps had a spell by now that could do the same thing. He thought some more and replied that ...yes, he thought he could probably imitate one he’d seen once, and despite some misgivings they decided to move forward with that.

Luckily, the spell worked quite well, and the mercenaries were quickly downed. Salem suggested they gather them up and put them outside, to hopefully end things with a more peaceful note. Terrin replied that if they did that, they would also need to include a clearer deterrent, or have indignant mercenaries running back in for both riches they felt they deserved, and weapons they probably shouldn’t be let near if any note was to be remotely peaceful. So, after moving the humans into a rough circle on some grass outside, they also gathered up all the enchanted gear around. It was, indeed, powerfully enchanted, as Terrin noted after some brief examination. They then piled it up, and together melted it into a solid lump. With some shapes still apparent, and all the natural and magical shine blackened, Terrin deemed a strong inspiration of human aversion. They dumped it outside, next to the mercenaries, and indeed enjoyed a rather peaceful resolution to that particular problem.

Next, Terrin noted that he probably knew who the wizard was. There were few so powerful, after all, and this one seemed to specialize in enchantment. So, he concluded, it must be Dralying, of the thousand blades. None of the others were familiar with him, but Salem congratulated Terrin on his human knowledge. He beamed and explained he intended to go speak to the wizard in human form. This was not a very popular idea, but they admitted he knew humans best, and he ultimately went.

With him he took some tea with a tea set, a few snacks he found humans to enjoy, and a bundle of five enchanted objects. These were from Coromant’s hoard, and had been in the castle for ages untold with little concern paid to them. However, Terrin had considered them carefully, and had created a catalogue detailing their characteristics, magical function, and history within human society. There was a goblet, a pair of metal-and-obsidian glasses, a gyroscope, a flask, and a seemingly unremarkable hammer. From what he remembered, and some research from the castle books, he considered these to be the most interesting objects to a wizard they had. He had carefully written down all he could on them and organized them meticulously. He went to Dralying’s house confident, polite, and with a great number of apologies prepared.

Dralying, who was known to be very attached to courtesy, was utterly thrown by the appearance and disposition of an entirely new dragon at his doorstep. He was further thrown to find it to be the previous dragon’s brother, and thrown further yet by Terrin’s shapeshifting and earnest gifts.

Overall, the meeting went exceedingly well. After finding he had so much in common with a very organized dragon, who expressed the same level of admiration for humans that Drayling had always had for dragons, they got along wonderfully. Drayling had actually chosen to live near dragons because he quite admired their magic, flame, and culture, and was relieved in a way to find one he could hold a pleasant conversation with. Even if he did seem a bit young. Terrin, for his part, gleefully described Coromant as his “idiot younger brother” and promised no more trouble would come from him. They parted ways both quite satisfied, in their own ways, and quietly relieved.

When he got back to the castle, he found the others gathered in the great hall. Ruby and Salem had been helping Coromant clean the place back up some, and he had been putting in extra effort in an attempt to express his gratitude. It’s worth mentioning he had also been thanking all three for their help since Ruby had let him into her cave, but was still ashamed enough he had trouble getting the words out. Shortly after they decided to be done with cleaning for the time being, he had drawn Salem aside for a private, awkward conversation.

Terrin looked around at them and coughed slightly. “Erm. Yep. Spoke to Drayling. He’s kind of famous as a human, actually. Also calm. He’s pretty calm now. No issues. Hm.” He glanced at Ruby, who shrugged and looked back to Coromant. Salem nudged him in the side a bit and he looked up quickly. “Right! Yes, anyway. Um. I… wanted to apologize. As in… properly say sorry. I know I haven’t really yet, for, um, anything. And I’m sorry.” Coromant took a deep breath and spoke again: “When we had our competition, I basically cheated. Salem let it go, but it was stupid and childish and I really, really regret it. Honestly, I didn’t want the castle as bad as I said I did, and I was just being stupid because I wanted to win. I’m sorry.”

He took another breath, and gave a nervous look at the others, before continuing. “I know it must have felt like I didn’t respect your claims, and I’m really sorry I made you feel that way. I know I messed keeping the castle up, too and I’m really sorry for that too. I didn’t mean too, and if there’s ever anything I can do to make it up to you, I promise I-”

“Ah, save it.” interrupted Ruby. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep. Heck, you’ll have a hard enough time just keeping out of trouble as it is.”

Coromant’s breath failed him for a moment, and he looked at her with the beginnings of panic. She was smiling, though, and her tone had been light. She stepped forward, and they all joined into a spontaneous sibling hug. Due to draconic body proportions, this mainly involved shoving Coromant to the floor and crushing him beneath their combined weight. Even so, he would have been hard-pressed to deny it was a very good hug.

Salem would use the castle, from then on. Coromant didn’t feel comfortable with keeping it, at that point, and she still was the most inclined of the other three to take it. Naturally, this left the four-castle swamp open. He went on to enjoy the swamps as a decent hunting ground, and later accidentally founded a demonic cult in his new underwater estate. They were a strange group, and he found their worship too unnerving to enjoy, but he grew to at least tolerate humans. Terrin became a renowned human spellcaster, which made blending in more difficult, but also helped to excuse some of his stranger eccentricities. It also allowed him to meet several famous humans, which he always enjoyed. Runy, in turn, eventually enjoyed some spectacular eruptions from her volcano, and spent some spare time learning how to create funny mechanical devices. She’d always enjoyed Terrin’s projects, but found a remarkable amount could be accomplished even without magic. Salem, finally, spent many happy years in the castle. She displayed several of her favorite sculptures there, and eventually spent some time getting to know Drayling. They got along alright, though she found his curiosity about dragon culture somewhat bewildering, as dragons have little uniting cultural themes or beliefs across their species.

Every set date before a family reunion, a few months in advance, the four siblings would meet once more at the castle, and spend some time reconnecting and preparing for the extended family’s arrival. Though their lives went in very different directions, they remained close, and helped one another out in times of need. In this way, they had many largely happy centuries together, as a family.


End file.
